Young Wha Lee on leaving academia for industry and finding career fulfillment

Young Wha Lee, Data Scientist at Monsanto, talks about searching for a career that bridges interests and gives joy, and how to approach industry jobs. 

In the Decoding Life series, we talk to geneticists with diverse career paths, tracing the many directions possible after research training. This series is brought to you by the GSA Early Career Scientist Career Development Subcommittee.

What does a typical day at work look like for you?

“Data scientist” basically means anyone who works at the intersection of statistics and coding. I usually spend half of my time at my desk working through data analyses and have a few projects on the go at any given moment. For the other half of the time, I am in meetings. In industry, everything happens in teams, and we often have a high communication overhead. I may be pitching ideas, reporting results, consulting for other people’s projects, or attending internal workshops. There is a big social aspect of doing research in industry, which is very important.

Read Young Wha Lee’s story here http://genestogenomes.org/young-wha-lee-on-leaving-academia-for-industry-and-finding-career-fulfillment/